


Killer Instinct

by Sholio



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Character Study, Fluff, Gen, Season/Series 02 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 15:55:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12585380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Steve's daemon settled shortly after the fight with the Demodogs.





	Killer Instinct

Steve's daemon settled shortly after the fight with the Demodogs. By that point he didn't know very many people his age whose daemons hadn't settled yet. Nancy's Phrygeas, of course, had settled years ago, and now he couldn't even picture her without the hummingbird nestled jewel-like in her hair. (Steve had always thought it was a perfect shape for her: tiny and pretty, just like she was. Then he watched a documentary on hummingbirds during the summer after the first Demogorgon fight, and suddenly a lot of things about Nancy made a lot more sense.)

But Penny not only hadn't settled by his senior year, he didn't even have a clue what she might settle as. Most people were starting to get some idea by this point. Penny didn't really have a preference, and neither did Steve. He liked it when she was a horse, a big glorious Thoroughbred, but he also liked it when she was a wolf or a hawk or a snake that coiled on his shoulder and looked around with bright eyes. Most of the forms she took were large and fierce and pretty, but it had occurred to him over time that she might be doing that because she knew _he_ liked her to, and not because it was something coming from inside her.

Steve knew he'd love her no matter what, of course, but he just didn't know what she was going to be, and neither, it appeared, did Penny. He knew -- although his dad had never actually said so -- that his dad hoped she'd settle in one of her bigger, fiercer forms (a leopard, a bear, an eagle). His dad had never really made a secret of the fact that he was disappointed his Linette had settled as a [potoo](https://abcbirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Common-Potoo_Photo-2__Fabio-Maffei__SS.jpg) instead of something larger and more photogenic (though Steve had always loved Linette; she used to enjoy making him laugh when he was a small child -- it seemed to him she'd become somehow smaller and sadder as he got older). 

And of course his entire friends group, when he was still hanging around with Tommy and Carol and that bunch, never shut up about _their_ hopes and dreams for _their_ daemons. Tommy was completely unbearable after his Talia settled as a cheetah. 

But he still couldn't quite bring himself to hope Penny ended up as a lion or a polar bear, because he wanted _her_ to be happy, and anyway, in his heart of hearts, he thought it was nicer when she was something small and comfortable to be with. Some of his nicest memories from his childhood involved snuggling with Penny under the covers, with Penny as a fluffy spaniel or a cat, something that just wanted to wrap around him and make him giggle by licking his face.

She settled as a toy apricot poodle.

 

***

 

"You know, that's not what I was expecting," Jonathan said, looking across the field. He and Nancy were studying under the bleachers, one of his hands dangling to brush Oinoie's furry back; she'd settled as a [fisher](http://vtecostudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/11514875203_a957b493ee_b.jpg).

On the bleachers at the far side, Penny and Max's daemon, currently a squirrel, were playing tag on the top row of seats. For a dog, Penny was a remarkably agile one, the sort of dog that could jump to the top of a fence rail from a standing start. Steve and a few of the kids were down on the grass, doing something that involved cards and dice, and looked like some sort of board game. Typical Saturday in late spring: no one wanted to be inside.

"What part of it?" Nancy asked, looking up from the book in her lap, with Phrygeas perched on her shoulder.

"Any of it. But I meant the poodle."

"I knew she'd be some kind of dog. I was expecting a bigger one, though."

Penny and Max's Fury came bounding down the stepped rows of seats and landed clumsily in the middle of the game, scattering pieces everywhere. The yelps of dismay from the kids could be heard from across the field. Fury bounded off, but Penny stood on Steve's leg to apologetically lick his face and then curled up in his lap.

"And yet," Nancy added, looking back down at her textbook, "somehow I'm not in the least surprised."

**Author's Note:**

> I picked a cheetah for Tommy because they _sound_ cool, but are actually inbred and high-strung.
> 
> A fisher is a shy, rare forest mammal, related to martens.
> 
> Hummingbirds, though tiny, are notoriously aggressive.
> 
> Toy poodles are extremely athletic dogs; they do well at jumping events.
> 
> If you haven't heard of the potoo, [do](https://www.hbw.com/sites/default/files/styles/ibc_1k/public/ibc/p/Nyctibius_griseus.jpg?itok=IFeTKXPE) [yourself](https://www.unbelievable-facts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/creepy-potoo.jpg) [a favor](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LK_T1Gb3y1s/UuRXAJdn75I/AAAAAAAAIv0/4D-mL67oUeo/s1600/Potoo+with+limited+golden+eye+section,+Barnorama.jpg) and [look up](https://download.ams.birds.cornell.edu/api/v1/asset/57875361//large) [some pictures](http://media.galaxant.com/000/339/451/desktop-1441293794.jpg).


End file.
